Friday, June 17, 2005
Well, it's happened. My father quit breathing about 10:30 pm. I went to the station to get one of the nurses. His breathing became much more labored and we all got up to hold his hands. My mother kept leaning in and hollering thing things at him "I love you" and "Love of my life." (My father was pretty deaf.) We also kept telling him to just go to sleep. He kept moving his mouth so we were all pretty sure that he was awake. He just didn't have the breath. His eyes seemed to be cracked the whole time he was in the hospital, but then they were wide open.
He let out one hard sigh and stopped. I went to the nurses station and told them that he had stopped breathing. One came in and checked his heartbeat. It was still fifty beats a minute. The nurse removed his oxygen mask. This greatly upset MeMa. In my opinion, it doesn't do any good if he isn't breathing, but what do I know? To her, I'm still a young pup.
My mother had been upset by MeMa enough. She asked the other nurse to replace it. It wasn't worth arguing with MeMa at a time like this. Of course, MeMa did manage to upset us all by asking for the nurses name. I think that even rattled the nurse a bit. She said that if we wanted the oxygen to stay on we should have said so. It would have been okay to leave it on. The nurses checked in periodically to check my father's pulse. We watched it drop from fifty to thirty to twelve. There was even a time where the nurse only heard a single heartbeat. Ten minutes later she declared his heart as stopped. Of course, we stayed there the whole time and only moved or let go of his hand to let the nurse to get to the bed.
It was shocking that his lungs were the first thing to go. Of course, his right heel had turned black due to lack of circulation, but the lungs were the first thing to stop completely.
Both of the nurses came in for the final check. It was 11:30 and they confirmed that his heart had stopped for good.
We sat there for thirty minutes telling old stories about my father. He was a character. He used to run a bar in Smyrna and one of the nurses said that they were sorry that they didn't meet him sooner. Then we packed up everything and left the hospital. The nurses had the name of the funeral home. Well, we couldn't remember the name, but we remembered that it was in Smyrna, and there is only one there.
Good night folks.
He let out one hard sigh and stopped. I went to the nurses station and told them that he had stopped breathing. One came in and checked his heartbeat. It was still fifty beats a minute. The nurse removed his oxygen mask. This greatly upset MeMa. In my opinion, it doesn't do any good if he isn't breathing, but what do I know? To her, I'm still a young pup.
My mother had been upset by MeMa enough. She asked the other nurse to replace it. It wasn't worth arguing with MeMa at a time like this. Of course, MeMa did manage to upset us all by asking for the nurses name. I think that even rattled the nurse a bit. She said that if we wanted the oxygen to stay on we should have said so. It would have been okay to leave it on. The nurses checked in periodically to check my father's pulse. We watched it drop from fifty to thirty to twelve. There was even a time where the nurse only heard a single heartbeat. Ten minutes later she declared his heart as stopped. Of course, we stayed there the whole time and only moved or let go of his hand to let the nurse to get to the bed.
It was shocking that his lungs were the first thing to go. Of course, his right heel had turned black due to lack of circulation, but the lungs were the first thing to stop completely.
Both of the nurses came in for the final check. It was 11:30 and they confirmed that his heart had stopped for good.
We sat there for thirty minutes telling old stories about my father. He was a character. He used to run a bar in Smyrna and one of the nurses said that they were sorry that they didn't meet him sooner. Then we packed up everything and left the hospital. The nurses had the name of the funeral home. Well, we couldn't remember the name, but we remembered that it was in Smyrna, and there is only one there.
Good night folks.
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